- Sharanja De Zoysa
Human Rights - SLMUN Article 3
UNODC - 2016
Everyone deserves justice and everyone deserves to feel safe. However the sad reality is that we aren’t safe in this world; guns, war, terrorism, nuclear weapons, radicalism, racial prejudice and much more threaten people around the world everyday.
‘Just because we check the guns at the door, doesn’t mean our brains will change from hand grenades’ (21 Pilots) Humans can’t be controlled and when provoked or fuelled by rage and hatred, giving a man a gun isn’t the best idea. Australia’s strict gun regulation has resulted in a fall in gun related homicides and suicides, whereas the US is home to nearly a third of the world’s mass shootings. The ‘flower power’ representative of the Earth Charter wants a “culture of none violence”, if only it was that simple… The flipside of the argument is that guns provide a sense of security as you have a means of protecting yourself. Although is increasing the supply of guns in the world the answer to stopping gun related violence? Donald Trump certainly thinks the answer is giving the “good guys” guns as well and the delegate of Russia is siding with this theory as he believes criminals will get their hands on guns whether it’s legal or not. “There is no relevance between gang violence and gun legalization” as most terror groups and gangs acquire guns through illegal means and “if guns were taken away the situation would be worse”. The delegate of US claims the US government wants take away guns but will settle for regulating gun control. Another “bright” idea was to encompass proper gun use in education (what could possibly go wrong if you taught more people how to use guns, it’s not like they’ll go around killing people – note the sarcasm). However there are also many anti-gun activism protests such as ‘cocks not glocks, fighting absurdity with absurdity’ campaign in the University of Texas. The solution as suggested by the delegate of China is to improve law enforcement instead of arming civilians.
Even though we are live in a time that America has a black president, there are still many racial crimes and racial prejudice. From police brutality to hate crimes, some parts of America aren’t safe for blacks. Even though the campaign #BlackLivesMatter caught a lot of attention, including that of the first lady, Michelle Obama, there are still too many unjustifiable massacres of black people.
The world is becoming less and less safe for everyone, from Donald Trump running for president of the United States of America to the horrors of war and bombing in places like Allepo.
Another matter discussed was the lack of accountability even of the UNPK forces. And due to the transnational nature of war and crimes, militaries of the world should communicate more, recognizing that are already such bodies such as Interpol and situations this was seen such as the coalition in Syria.
Security does not only mean safety of civilians but economic security is also a part of this, as a strong economy helps better the lives and security of the people of the country. The issue of bond trading, AID dependency and the destabilizing effect it has on economies. With regard to Sub Saharan Africa and the $50 billion China has spent on buying its natural resources, if this aid was cut off it would cripple the economy as they have being increasingly dependent on this and they have no fall back as China is bleeding their natural resources dry. This stresses the importance of sustainable AID in order to limit the negative economy effects.
Regardless of the sexual orientation of a person, they are still human and deserve equal rights. With regard to the LGBTQI community and the lack of legal security for said people, such as gay marriage and other such rights they are deprived of. However it is unfair to force upon nations such as those abiding by the Sharia law to go against their beliefs by giving LGBTQI people a universally legal identity. That being said, it is also inhumane that countries abiding by the Sharia law fail to recognize them and treat them poorly due to them being “different”. It is hard to make a universal change when every country’s culture is different, taking Russia and the US, they are on different ends of the spectrum… Russia considers it a “mental disease” and the US is the land of the free and gay marriage is legal, so it is difficult to find common ground on this matter as was discovered during debate.
Overall we must understand that people are people and everyone deserves to be treated with respect and consideration. What this world needs is a group hug!